4 is better if you want an old school fixed-class character-driven JRPG. But 9 and 10 do that in a more modern way.
6 is better if you want an old-school blank-slate character-driven JRPG. But 7 and 8 do that in a more modern way.
7, 8, 9, and 10 are all retro themselves though.
5 is great if you want an old-school “character class” JRPG. And if you want it to be character-focused, you’ve gotta look at something like 10-2.
Recommending specific games from the franchise really depends on what someone is looking for.
Trails in the Sky.
2 picks up immediately after 1, and expects the player to already be proficient with the battle system from the start.
3 would be confusing and boring without having played the prior two games.
And yes, it’s a subseries, but still. Lol